Scars Run Deep
by Zoe Blade
Summary: After all but revealing it to him during a huge storm, Zoro asks Sanji about the one secret he's hidden for most of his life; the reason he hides the left side of his face. Very slight ZoSan, if you know where to look. My first One Piece fanfic, so don't be too hard on me.
1. Chapter 1

Scars run deep

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"Get those sails tied down NOW!" Nami barked.

"What does it look like we're doing?!" Zoro yelled.

"Hey, watch your mouth with her you shitty swordsman!" Sanji yelled.

"You want to start something, love-cook?!"

"Are you guys really going to argue now, with all this happening?!" Usopp screamed.

The raging storm rocked the Thousand Sunny around violently. Everyone was scrambling around the deck, tying down everything, trying to prepare the ship to ride it out. Zoro swung down from the rigging after securing the sail on the main mast and was headed towards the foremast to do the same when he heard the faint sound of something snapping. Instinctively, he stopped running and looked around to find where the sound came from, but couldn't see anything through the rain.

"Zoro, heads up!" he then heard someone scream from behind him. Zoro turned around just in time to see Sanji running towards him and push him out of the way as a barrel that had broken loose slammed into him, knocking him overboard.

"SANJI!" Luffy screamed as he and the rest of the crew ran to the side of the ship, except for Zoro, who had a different plan in mind.

"Where is he?!" Chopper cried.

"Can anyone see him?!" Nami said.

"No, I don't see him anywhere!" Franky replied.

"SAAANJIII!" Luffy continued to scream.

"He has to be close to the ship; the storm can't have swept him out too far!" Robin said.

"Look!" Usopp yelled, pointing out towards the sea. "There he is, over there!"

Everyone followed the direction he was pointing and sure enough, there was Sanji, holding onto the barrel that had fallen over with him.

"Luffy, can you grab him?!" Nami asked.

Luffy drew his arm back and launched it forwards. But instead of grabbing him, his hand plunged into the ocean, too far away for Sanji to reach.

"He's too far out; the wind's too strong and we're moving around too much." Luffy said sadly as he pulled his arm back in. "There's no way I can help him."

"Then what are we gonna do?!" Chopper panicked. "We can't just leave him out there in this storm; he'll drown!"

At that moment, Zoro breezed past everyone and jumped overboard, a rope from the ship's rigging tied around his waist. He struggled through the crashing waves towards Sanji and once there, placed a hand on his shoulder. Sanji looked up at him for a moment, panic clear on his face, and nodded as an unspoken communication crossed between them both. Sanji wrapped both his arms around his neck and Zoro wrapped one arm around his waist and grabbed onto the rope tightly with the other hand.

"GUYS, PULL US IN!" Zoro yelled through the storm.

Seconds later, he felt them both being dragged through the water as everyone on the ship pulled on the rope, save Chopper, who had disappeared. Once they were on the deck, Sanji rolled over off his back and onto his knees, coughing and shivering.

"You alright?" Zoro panted as he sat up.

Sanji looked at him for a little while then slammed a fist across his head.

"D-d-d-damn, sh-sh-shitty Marimo!" he shivered. "W-w-what was g-going th-through your head when you s-st-topped running?!"

"Yeah, he's fine." Nami sighed before she ordered the others to go back to securing the ship.

At that moment, Chopper came running out of the sick bay carrying two blankets; one of which he gave to Zoro, the other he draped over Sanji's shoulders, who he then started looking over.

"Ch-Ch-Chopper, I'm fine, really; I'm just f-f-freezing right now." He complained.

"That may be, but I want to check that for myself." Chopper replied.

Zoro was about to get up and help the rest of the crew when suddenly, as Chopper was about to check his face, Sanji swatted him away and turned his head abruptly to one side. Both looked at him in shock before Sanji got up and quickly made his way to the kitchen. Chopper was about to go after him when Nami called for him to help Franky secure the barrels that came loose. Zoro kept focused on the direction Sanji had disappeared to; when he turned away from Chopper, there was something he saw on Sanji's face aside from panic that brought up an interesting question that he fully intended to find out the answer to.

* * *

Zoro was jolted out of his sleep when something slammed into his bunk. Knowing full well who it was, he looked over at a sleeping Luffy and glared at him for the fourth time that night. He was about to head towards the training room when he noticed that Sanji's bunk was empty. Since Usopp was on lookout duty and Nami had threatened to tie him to the ship's anchor if he came anywhere near the women's quarters, Zoro knew there was only one possible place he could be at this time. Feeling a "sudden urge" for alcohol, Zoro quietly made his way to the kitchen and sure enough, there was Sanji, smoking a cigarette as he set the table for breakfast. He looked up when he heard Zoro close the door behind him and growled.

"How are _you_ the one who's up early?" Sanji grumbled.

"You sound surprised." Zoro chuckled.

"That's because I am; especially considering I once saw you sleep through a hurricane."

"Yeah, well, I got tired of Luffy punching my bunk in his sleep, so I came here to get some sake to help knock me out." To prove his point, Zoro walked over to the fridge, grabbed a bottle, and sat down on the couch. "So what's your excuse for being up so early?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to sleep through Franky's snoring? I swear, the guy has rusty gears built into his throat, or something."

Zoro only shrugged as he bit off the cork on the bottle and took a long drink; admittedly, he had experienced the same problem the first few nights Franky was on board.

"Now, why are you really here?" Sanji continued.

Zoro looked back at Sanji, who was now washing dishes. "I told you already; I came here to get some sake to-"

"Don't play that game with me, Marimo; I know you too well. You always go up to your training room whenever you can't sleep, and you only come in here to steal sake when you know I'm not around. So, again, why are you really here?"

Zoro sighed and stood up from the couch, placing the bottle on the table.

"I want to talk to you about earlier today." He said.

"If you're expecting a 'thank you' out of me, then I'm gonna kick your ass right over the-"

"I want to know what you're hiding behind the hair over your left eye."

Sanji paused for a moment, his body tensing up a little. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play that game with _me_, ero-cook; when you turned away from Chopper, your hair moved out of the way enough for me to see the beginning of a scar on the bridge of your nose." Sanji tensed up even more upon hearing this. "I didn't see much of it, but I saw enough to know that there's a reason you don't show the left side of your face. So what is it you're hiding?"

Sanji clenched his jaw tightly, then after a moment, he finally relaxed with a frustrated sigh.

"What I'm hiding is a past that I want nothing more than to forget, and a secret that I want no one to know about." Sanji said, tossing his cigarette into the sink water. "Unfortunately, it looks like I can't do either tonight."

"What do you mean?"

Sanji slowly walked to the door and locked it after making sure no one else was nearby. He then walked towards the windows behind Zoro.

"Oi, are you going to explain what you're doing, or not?"

Sanji checked each window closely before answering, "The last thing I want right now is for someone to walk in on or see this."

"What are you…You're going to show me the left side of your face."

Sanji paused for a moment and sighed before turning around to face him. "Before I do this, Zoro, I need you to promise me something."

"What?"

"I need you to promise me that no matter what, you won't tell anyone about what I'm about to show you; everything you see and hear in this kitchen stays in this kitchen."

It was clear from the look on his face that Sanji was serious, but at the same time, Zoro could see in the one eye that was showing that he was also scared.

"Alright, curlybrow," Zoro replied as softly as he could, "I promise that no matter what, this will just be between us."

Surprised at first by the softness of Zoro's voice, Sanji then smiled slightly and nodded.

"Thank you." He whispered.

The smile on Sanji's face faded away to match the pained and scared look in his eye as he slowly lifted his hand up to where his hair covered the left side, but hesitated when he was inches away from moving it aside.

"Wow, is it really that bad?" Zoro said.

"Let's just say, there's a reason I've hidden this for most of my life."

Zoro walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then I guess it pleases me to be the first to know why."

Sanji looked at him closely for a moment, and then his expression softened a little. Understanding that he wanted Sanji to trust him this one time, he nodded and motioned for Zoro to take a step back. Then he moved his hair aside and tucked it behind his ear.

to be continued

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I know what you're thinking; what kind of an ending is that?! What's Sanji hiding?! Don't worry; that chapter will be up soon...ish.


	2. Chapter 2

Scars run deep Ch 2

to be honest, I planned to make this longer, but after looking it over, I decided to put this much in. Enjoy.

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Zoro gasped and stumbled backwards into the table. Across the left side of Sanji's face were four deep and horrible scars. The first stretched from his hairline to where the curl in his eyebrow began, the second started dangerously close to the outer corner of his eye and ended at his ear, the third cut through his sinus cavity and cheek bone and stopped at his jaw, just under his ear, the fourth and longest scar started between the bridge of his nose and his eyebrow, cut straight across his eye, and ended at his jaw, almost connecting with the third scar. What startled Zoro, though, was the eye itself. Sanji's left eye didn't have an iris or a pupil; it was just a blank, ghostly white orb. Upon seeing his reaction, Sanji looked away and cringed. Zoro quickly shook away the shock, stepped away from the table, and cleared his throat.

"Sorry." He murmured.

"You're not the first." Sanji replied. "And that's why I hide it."

Zoro took a step towards him with his hand outstretched. "Do you mind if I…"

Sanji shook his head, allowing Zoro to trace his fingers through the scars. His hand paused when he got to the fourth one.

"Is it…" Zoro began. "Uh…I-I mean can you…"

Sanji shook his head slowly and looked down for a moment.

"I'm completely blind in my left eye." He said quietly.

Zoro took his hand away "What happened to you?"

Sanji walked past him and sat in the chair on the opposite side of the table. After gesturing Zoro to do the same, he lit another cigarette that he had in his pocket and blew out a puff of smoke.

"It was while I was still on the Orbit…"Sanji began.

"The what?" Zoro interrupted.

"The passenger ship I was chore boy on before I met Zeff. Anyway, I was out cleaning tables when I noticed one of the passengers was stealing tips off of them. When he saw me, he gestured for me to keep quiet about it, but I didn't; after I was done, I went straight to the head chef and told him what I saw and the guy was confined to his sleeping quarters until we next docked."

"But it doesn't end there, does it?"

"You're not as dense as I thought, moss head…And you're right; somehow, he managed to break out of his quarters and later that night, he cornered me just as I was leaving the kitchen to go to bed. He dragged me into the serving galley, pinned me to one of the tables and pulled out a knife that he had somehow managed to sneak onto the ship. 'You should have kept your mouth shut.' He said. 'Now I'm gonna show you what happens when a nosey, chatty brat, like yourself, sees too much.' That's when he started slicing up my face."

Sanji closed his eyes tightly. His entire body shuddered as he remembered the experience.

"Then what?" Zoro asked carefully.

Sanji looked back up at him. "The other chefs heard me screaming and came out to help. They got him off me, tied him up, and locked him in the storage room. But by the time they got the treatment kit for me, it was too late to save my eye. I've been half blind ever since."

Both sat quietly in the dark moonlit room for some time before Zoro stood up and quietly walked over to him.

"How old were you?" he asked.

"I was seven." Sanji kept his eyes forward. "And I've kept it to myself since then; not even Zeff knows about these scars."

Zoro placed a hand on his shoulder, making Sanji look up at him.

"Sanji, I can understand why you hid your scars, but why didn't you say anything about them to us?"

Sanji looked back down at the table, clenching his fists tightly. Zoro felt his shoulder tense up underneath his hand and immediately knew the answer;

"You regret your decision, don't you?"

Sanji stood up and walked to the kitchen sink. He placed his hands on the counter and tightly closed his eyes.

"I know I did the right thing that day, Zoro." He said through a clenched jaw. "But ever since then, not a single day has gone by that I don't ask myself the same damn question; 'was it really worth it?'" Sanji opened his eyes and flinched when he saw himself in the sink water. Angrily, he slammed his hand across the water and turned his back to Zoro.

"I can't even look at myself in a mirror without cringing when I see them!" it was clear from the tone in his voice that Sanji was trying to fight back tears. "Believe me when I say, these scars run deeper than you could ever imagine."

Zoro folded his arms in front of his chest and tilted his head down with his eyes closed for a moment, then looked back up at Sanji to see his shoulders vibrating.

"Actually, Sanji," he sighed, "I think I have a good idea how deep they run."

As Sanji looked back at him in confusion, as he had expected, Zoro slowly turned around. He grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled it over his shoulders to reveal a long, jagged scar across his back.

to be continued

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trust me, i'm not ending it there but until then, I hope you liked what I put in now. oh, and while it's on my mind, i'm well aware that they showed what the left side of Sanji's face looked like; I'm just treating this like they haven't yet (personally, I think he looked cuter before they showed it).


	3. Chapter 3

Scars run deep Ch 3

At last, I have this chapter up. Word of warning, this chapter has a little more ZoSan than the other two. But other than that, enjoy!

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Sanji stood there and stared at the scar across Zoro's back in shocked silence with his mouth gapped open allowing his cigarette to fall out. It stretched from the top of his right shoulder blade to the bottom of his left and screamed of pain and agony. When he didn't hear him say anything at first, Zoro looked over his shoulder and scowled when he saw him staring.

"Hey, close that slack jaw of yours, curlybrow; you're gonna get birds nesting in it!" he growled.

Sanji quickly closed his mouth and looked down, shaking his head.

"My bad." He mumbled. "I'm going to guess that's not from a normal swordfight."

"What gave you that idea?" Zoro said as he pulled his shirt back down over the scar and turned around to face him.

"Something you said on the Baratie when you lost to Mihawk;" after lighting another cigarette, Sanji walked over and sat in the chair closest to Zoro. "I remember you said to him before he cut open your chest that sword cuts to the back are dishonorable."

Zoro folded his arms in front of his chest again and chuckled as he shook his head in amusement.

"And all this time, I thought you weren't paying attention that day." He said as he sat down on the couch. Then his gaze turned serious. "And you'd be right; I got this scar not long after I was given Wadou Ichimonji."

"Wadou Ichi-what?"

"The white sword I use; it originally belonged to my close friend, Kuina. Actually, that's where the story begins. You see, back when I was still in training, Kuina was the only student who was able to beat me; in fact, she beat me 2001 times."

Sanji gagged violently on a puff of cigarette smoke that he inhaled wrong.

"You kept track of that?!" he coughed.

"Try and remember to breathe, love-cook. Anyway, we made a promise to each other that one of us would become the world's greatest swordsman. Not long afterwards, though, she died."

"What happened?"

"The story was that she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs while she was looking for a sharpening stone. But about a month after her father gave me her sword to remember our promise, I found out the truth."

Sanji was about to ask what he meant, when he saw Zoro tense up with rage and then knew the answer;

"Her death wasn't an accident, like everyone thought; it was murder."

Zoro clenched his jaw even tighter. "Three days before that, Kuina beat a student who was even more cocky than I was at the time, and he didn't take kindly to the fact that he was beaten by a girl. When she went to look for a sharpening stone, he was waiting for her at the top of the stairs and pushed her down. When I found out, I hunted that bastard down and challenged him to a swordfight in Kuina's honor, which he insulted when he killed her; that was the first time I used three sword style. I beat him like a drum, and as a reminder of how big of a mistake it was to attack my friend, I put a deep sword cut across the right side of his face"

"Nice touch." Sanji chuckled.

"I thought so too. And when he ran off bleeding and cursing, that's when I was certain it was all over."

"It clearly wasn't, though."

"Far from it; three weeks later, he and a friend of his ambushed me while I was training and dragged me into a nearby secluded forest. 'I've been meaning to pay you back for the cut you put on my face, you green haired runt.' He said while his friend tied me down to a tree. 'Send my regards to Kuina.' Then he took one of the daggers his friend had and slowly pulled it across my back."

Sanji cocked his head to the side in confusion. "'One of'?"

"His friend was another student; he specialized in dagger fighting."

"Oh. So then what happened?"

"I don't know; I passed out from the pain and when I woke up, I was back at the dojo with bandages wrapped around my chest. I haven't seen either of those bastards since that day."

Sanji tossed his cigarette to the floor and stomped it out. "When was this?"

"About 8 years ago; I was eleven at the time."

Sanji clenched his fists tightly and shifted his position in the chair a little.

"So you think because you got that scar for doing what you thought was right that you have an idea of what I've gone through since that day?" he growled.

"I know I do." Zoro replied.

In one swift movement, Sanji spun out of the chair and landed a powerful kick to the right side of Zoro's ribcage, sending him flying across the room.

"You don't have a damn clue!" he roared. "Your scar is on your back where you can't see it and it doesn't cause you any problems; mines are all across the left side of my face and have left me half blind! When you healed, you went on with your life as if nothing happened; I had to hide away in the kitchen for months until my hair was long enough to hide my scars and I had to spend month's longer re-teaching myself to see with only one eye! When you got your bandages off, everyone treated you the same way as they did before." Sanji's voice faltered a little and he took a shaky breath. He put a hand on the table and looked away to hide the tears forming in his eyes. "I got my bandages off, and from then up until the point where no one could see the left side of my face, all the chefs shied away from me, and the ones' that didn't wouldn't even look at me."

Sanji made no attempt to stop the tears that were now streaking down his face as the painful memories washed over him, and he brought his other hand up to cover his left eye.

"The one thing that told me just how bad it was the most wasn't the pain from that knife cutting into me, it wasn't seeing and smelling all the blood, it wasn't feeling the scars on my face, it wasn't even finding out I couldn't see out of my left eye;" at this point, Sanji's voice was breaking. "It was how the chefs cringed away from me in fear when I got my bandages off and they saw the white pearl that's now become my left eye."

He took another shaky breath and moved his hair back over his face before looking over at Zoro, who was getting back on his feet, and glared at him.

"Name one reason why you would think that you know anything about how deep my scars run, Roronora Zoro."

Not wanting to wait for an answer, Sanji began to walk over to the door to unlock it and literally kick him out, but was stopped when he felt Zoro's hand pulling on his shoulder, forcing him to turn around and face him. The harsh words forming in his throat died out when he saw the sad and concerned look in Zoro's eyes.

"You're right; I don't know what you've had to go through." He said, moving Sanji's hair out of the way, making certain not to look at his eye. "But I do know how deep your scars run…"

Zoro placed a hand on his left cheek and dragged his thumb across the third scar, wiping away the tears.

"…because after I got mine, I haven't been able to stop asking myself if successfully defending Kuina's honor was really worth the scar on my back."

"And it's tormented me ever since." They both said in unison.

Sanji closed his eyes tightly and looked down to try and hide the fresh set of tears that threatened to fall. His entire body vibrated and his legs all but gave out after being reminded of that one bit of truth.

"That was always the worst part of it;" Sanji whimpered, "having to go through every day being plagued by that question running through my head over and over, and not being able to answer it myself."

Zoro placed his hand under Sanji's chin and tilted his head up, making him open his eyes. He slid his hand behind Sanji's neck and pulled him in, gently pressing his lips against his forehead and then pulled him into a soft embrace.

"I know, Sanji." Zoro whispered. "Believe me, I know."

Sanji wrapped his arms tightly around Zoro's chest. "I always thought no one did. I was absolutely certain no one else knew what this felt like."

"Shhh…It's ok. I understand; I really do."

Sanji's legs buckled and he felt himself be guided to the floor as Zoro gently lowered him to his knees. Both stayed in that position for some time until Sanji pulled himself away and wiped away the tears.

"I need to get breakfast started." He said, readjusting his hair over his eye and standing up.

"Yeah." Zoro slowly got back onto his feet. "I should probably get out of here too before someone starts wondering where I am."

Zoro walked over to the door and unlocked it, but paused before opening it, a nagging feeling in the back of his head telling him something. Knowing what it was, he looked over his shoulder at Sanji, who was cutting up various fruits, probably to make a salad for Nami and Robin.

"You gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

Although he sounded like it, Zoro wasn't completely convinced after seeing Sanji shatter the way he did; luckily, he knew how to find out for himself. Quietly, Zoro walked over to the table where he had left the bottle of sake before. He reached over and was about to grab it when suddenly, a butchers knife came flying through the air and embedded itself in the table between his hand and the bottle.

"Don't even think about it!" Sanji growled.

Zoro saw that Sanji hadn't even looked up from his cutting board and made no attempt to stop the smirk that spread across his face. Having gotten the reaction he had hoped for, he turned around to leave again.

"Hey Zoro…" Sanji began.

He stopped at the door and looked back at Sanji, who was now looking at him out of the corner of his good eye.

"We never talk about this."

Zoro couldn't help but smile. "It's like you said before, everything we see and hear in this kitchen stays in this kitchen."

Sanji smiled back and nodded in agreement before looking back down at his work. Zoro exited the kitchen for the training room without saying another word, closing the door behind him. What neither of them knew was that while they were going through their usual morning routines, both Sanji and Zoro said to themselves at the same time the answer that up until then, they didn't know;

"Completely worth it."

the end

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Maybe it's because I saw that lousy 4kids version first before I saw the good one, but for some reason, I just cant see Kuina's death as being an accident. Anyway, I hope you liked the story and maybe if I let it ruminate a little, I'll write something else.


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